Montaillou

An instant best-seller when it first appeared in 1978, Montaillou uses Inquisition records of the cross-examinations of Cathar heretics and their Catholic neighbours and kin to recover the religious, social, emotional and sexual lives of medieval Pyrenean villagers.

Shepherds, mayors, matriarchs and servants, priests and laity, come vividly to life as they recount their work and pleasures, friendships and enmities, doubts and beliefs. 

Montaillou is the most influential example of what was then a speciality of the French Annales school of history, namely, studies of everyday life (la vie quotidienne) in a particular historical milieu.

Since then micro-histories,… show more.

I came across this book as an undergraduate student and was immediately hooked. Le Roy Ladurie’s classic work has captivated readers since its initial publication in 1975 and inspired a generation of medievalists. Its subject is a small village in the eastern Pyrenees several decades after the Albigensian Crusade, which saw the region incorporated into the Kingdom of France and the appointment of inquisitors to eradicate the remnants of the Cathar heresy. Virtually every inhabitant of Montaillou over the age of 12 was arrested and hauled up in front of Jacques Fournier, whose persistent interrogations and cross-examinations in his search… show more.